Finance Act, 1974

Power to obtain information.

59.—(1) The Revenue Commissioners or such officer as the Revenue Commissioners may appoint may by notice in writing require any person to furnish them within such time as they may direct (not being less than twenty-eight days) with such particulars as they think necessary for the purposes of sections 57, 58 and 60.

(2) The particulars which a person must furnish under this section, if he is required by such a notice so to do, include particulars—

(a) as to transactions with respect to which he is or was acting on behalf of others, and

(b) as to transactions which in the opinion of the Revenue Commissioners or of such officer as the Revenue Commissioners may appoint it is proper that they should investigate for the purposes of sections 57, 58 and 60 notwithstanding that, in the opinion of the person to whom the notice is given, no liability to tax arises under the said sections.

(c) as to whether the person to whom the notice is given has taken or is taking any, and if so what, part in any, and if so what, transactions of a description specified in the notice.

(3) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (2), a solicitor shall not be deemed for the purposes of paragraph (c) thereof to have taken part in a transaction by reason only that he has given professional advice to a client in connection with that transaction, and shall not, in relation to anything done by him on behalf of a client, be compellable under this section, except with the consent of his client, to do more than state that he is or was acting on behalf of a client, and give the name and address of his client and also—

(a) in the case of anything done by the solicitor in connection with the transfer of any asset by or to an individual ordinarily resident in the State to or by any such body corporate as is hereinafter mentioned, or in connection with any associated operation in relation to any such transfer, the names and addresses of the transferor and the transferee or of the persons concerned in the associated operations, as the case may be;

(b) in the case of anything done by the solicitor in connection with the formation or management of any such body corporate as is hereinafter mentioned, the name and address of the body corporate;

(c) in the case of anything done by the solicitor in connection with the creation, or with the execution of the trusts, of any settlement by virtue or in consequence whereof income becomes payable to a person resident or domiciled out of the State, the names and addresses of the settlor and of that person.

The bodies corporate mentioned in the preceding provisions of this section are bodies corporate resident or incorporated outside the State which are, or if incorporated in the State would be, companies within the meaning of section 530 (6) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 .

(4) Nothing in this section shall impose on any bank the obligation to furnish any particulars of any ordinary banking transactions between the bank and a customer carried out in the ordinary course of banking business, unless the bank has acted or is acting on behalf of the customer in connection with the formation or management of any such body corporate as is mentioned in subsection (3) (b) or in connection with the creation, or with the execution of the trusts, of any such settlement as is mentioned in subsection (3) (c).

(5) In this section “settlement” and “settlor” have the meanings assigned to them by section 16 (3) (h) of the Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1968 .

(6) Schedule 15 to the Income Tax Act, 1967 , is hereby amended by the insertion in column 2 thereof of “Finance Act, 1974, section 59”.